Here:Elsewhere
by Sakyh
Summary: Post-Game. It's hard to keep faith when one remains here and the other has gone elsewhere


Here/Elsewhere

Part 1: Here

The sea carries my calling. I can tread its surface for miles on end without fear of the water breaking. I've walked the waters for many years, to its corners and back again in search of its end. I can tell you that even the ocean has an end.

But the sky does not. It constantly challenges the sea at the horizon in a battle of blue. Sometimes, they cross swords and gather tempests beneath their blades. Neither win. Even when waves wash upon foreign shores, the sky remains unchanged, relentless and unyielding even towards the highest of mountains.

I have faith in these familiar waters that never fail me. But the sky is not bound by certainty. It is unlimited.

When was the last time I've stepped foot in those waters?

I carefully prop my staff against the jagged rockledge overlooking the shoreline and make my way down towards the breaking waves of low tide. Beyond, the world is sleepy in morning gray as the rising sun shields itself behind distant clouds. There is no sign of impending rain, and the remaining sky glows a dull pink in anticipation of day.

In the distance rises a beam of light ascending past the mountains and into the open sky in glowing wisps of mist. On stormy nights, it cuts through clouds but on clear mornings such as today, it knows no end. For decades it has served as a lighthouse beckoning me to familiar shore from sea. Now it is my compass, pointing me skywards in the direction of the unknown.

(There's nothing left for you here,) it tells me, its voice taking on a stolen identity. (This is the direction of the future).

I ignore the voice.

(Come with me. We still have so much left to discover.)

I do a mental block before I can let the words reach me. He wouldn't say such nonsense. There's no way he would ask me to abandon my task and give up our dream. I know. I know.

Then why am I still here? I've done my part. I should be with you.

(You're right. The malevolence is nearly gone, so what are you waiting for?)

I don't even know where to start.

(Don't you wanna find out if there's more to this world than the world itself? You can do better than this. You owe me that much at least.)

"Shut up, Sorey," I say through gritted teeth. Easy for you to say when Ive been here and youve gone elsewhere.

The others don't know about the voice from the light that speaks to me. I haven't thought to tell anyone - they would think I've lost my mind. Sometimes, I think maybe I have.

At first, it wasn't Sorey speaking to me. The voice was both unrecognizable yet familiar, like a face without a name. Neither male nor female, it only spoke when I neared the ocean, as if to remind me that staying there would only weigh me down.

(Only a fool basks in the light of his past achievements. It's not enough. You can do better than this).

It's true - it's never enough. Once I started believing that, the voice took on an identity, and now it's Sorey's will that guilts me away from the sea and towards the sky.

(You're not a real explorer if you haven't questioned anything that lies beyond the sky.)

"You clearly don't know me at all."

But I don't know who I'm talking to anymore. I don't even know where I am. Am I far north towards the plains? South by the mountains?

I shake my head. It doesn't matter. All I know is the stretch of sky and sea in front of me. Today is another day to figure out how to make a fish fly. The problem is that I'm running out of ways to cast a line.

"Why am I finding you spending an awful lot of time on land?" I'm suddenly asked by a little voice. "Get off."

My eyes jolt into awareness at her unexpected arrival. Edna the Earth Seraph is already tired of my presence, indicated by the bite in her voice and a whack from her parasol.

Of course I would wander into Edna's domain. Lady Luck has no love for me.

I let it hit me dead in the face, unfazed by the countless number of times I've been ambushed in the centuries since I've met her unfortunate acquaintance.

"Nice to see you too," I mutter half-heartedly from within my thoughts. Edna, with her brother's boots and white-laced summer dress, greets me with the same straight-faced expression.

She is quick to catch my pondering and with a sigh, drives the tip of her parasol into the sand. "Whats wrong with you this time, Meebo?"

"Rude," I roll my eyes at her while straightening the bridge of my nose. "I don't know what you're trying to imply."

Despite the annoyance in her version of an apology, I take it and align myself beside her. We stand at the edge of the water front, far enough that the water doesn't reach our toes but close enough to feel the moisture creep up from the sand beneath our feet.

For a long minute, I'm compelled to say nothing, content with the sound of waves crashing over the silence.

Then: "Say Edna, does the sky ever end?"

She eyes me, gauging my question and measuring her response. "Are you stupid?" She shrugs. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"I see."

Without warning, a pair of heavy boots fly in from my peripherals. I dodge forward out of instinct, narrowly escaping another blow to the head today. I shoot a glare towards Edna, prepared with a violent reaction that she, for reasons that still elude me, gets a kick out of every time. You'd think I had learned my lesson after a century or two, but I always fall into the same trap. Always.

"Hey!" I manage to stutter in my "What's the big ide-"

"Just shut up and do what I do," she demands, exasperated while pointing at her exposed feet. Without her brother's boots, I realize just how tiny Edna is. Without them, she actually looks like a little girl. Even with her high-and-mighty voice, she looks vulnerable.

I stumble over words of protest before surrendering with a hopeless sigh. My boots slide off one after the other and when Edna notions her head towards the spot where her boots landed, I reluctantly do the same, letting my boots fly and sprawl haphazardly across the dry sands.

The sand is uniform beneath my bare feet, as if the grains of sand have melded under the pressure of the brine. Water seeps up from the pressure of my weight against the amalgamate. At some point, I realize my curled toes have dug a well for themselves, burrowing through the grains and rooting me into the ground.

When I turn to mimic Edna's actions, I'm surprised to see her already doing the same. With great intent, she watches her toes wriggle under the sand like moles creating tiny mounds that rise and fall with her every movement.

"It's nice, isn't it?" She says without looking up. Her voice, uninflected as usual, would have fooled anyone otherwise.

I nod warily, unsure of what she expects me to say and glance back down at my own feet. I don't deny that the sensation of wet sand beneath bare feet is oddly therapeutic, though.

"Close your eyes."

I do as she says, half expecting her to shove me in the water or hide my shoes or any multitude of troublesome pranks. But Edna, in spite of her unwarranted need to bother me, always eventually makes her point, even if it's at my expense.

As I accustom myself, I feel the world around me become brighter, heightened against the absence of light. It's not long before I feel the tide rising against my toes and matching the rise and fall of my breath to the rhythm of the sea. Even the air, heavy laden with the spray of salt, blooms across my tongue and parches my throat.

Nostalgia washes over me as I let my senses take over. I'm suspended in an unsettling awareness of familiarity. My heart is tense with longing and aches for relief. In my mind flashes pockets of memory - the high mountains of Elysia, the wonders of ancient ruins, and an old friend. Am I homesick? I can't even remember how long it's been since I've gone home to those mountains.

For a minute, I forget the sky and remember the sea. There is no voice, and for the first time in years, I can hear its calling.

"It's easy to forget sometimes," Edna says, pulling me out of my thoughts. "Why we're here." She scuffs the sand as she speaks, her voice deadpan but eyes dim with sadness. Or maybe regret?

She remembers her brother, long after coming to terms with putting him at rest. "Eizen-"

"Wouldn't have wanted me to spend centuries stuck on the Spiritcrest," she chokes, her heightened voice cracking under the weight of her memories. "He knew I'd stay and worry about what I couldn't do."

I keep silent. Edna's arms are taut at her sides, knuckles fisted and blanched white. She avoids my gaze, but her breath - erratic and staccato - is what gives her away. At one point, she was like me.

"But I stayed anyway," she continues with regained composure. "Stupid enough to do nothing because it was all I could do from there."

She heads towards me with her hands behind her back in slow, calculating strides. "Tell me, are you happy searching the sky for an end that might not exist? To the point where you don't even remember the seas you've already mapped out or the ruins you've deciphered?" We are inches apart and I'm forced to tilt my gaze down to meet hers. "You're so busy looking up that you forgot what down is."

Her eyes, usually dull without care, are set ablaze. They bore into me and it takes all I can not to look away. I can't refute her accusations - the truth in them is overbearing and echoes in my head with a haunting presence. _Are you happy? Why are you doing this in the first place?_

Have I already forgotten?

"But I have to try." I can't just...not.

She responds with a quick jab to my stomach and a sound escapes me. "No one's telling you to give up, stupid." Her lips curve into a smug smile. "Honestly, little Meebo still has centuries to go before he can reach my level of understanding."

I roll my eyes. Some high-and-mighty words coming from a little girl.

But I manage to crack a smile as well. I prefer Edna with her witty comebacks and deprecating remarks, though I'd never admit it. If I did, she would never let me forget my words. Thoughts of that potential reality send a shivers through my skin.

I think back to Edna's words; they remind me just how alike we are. To be lost while remaining still. To have a goal without direction.

"'There's always a way, just waiting for the right person to discover it,'" she says with her back to me.

My heart jumps at those familiar words - words I witnessed, yet were not for me.

"Those are words from the Shepherd that ended the Era of Chaos. He convinced the Earth Seraph from the Spiritcrest to journey with him by telling her this. I figured it was time to pass them on to someone else."

She goes to fetch her boots and to my surprise, gathers mine at the same time. When she returns, she tells me, "You don't have to make the same mistake I did. Believe it or not, even earth seraphs forget to ground themselves sometimes."

I nearly snort. "Very funny."

"I'm serious," she says with a mischievous smile. I still don't buy it.

Here I am, surrounded by sand and sea, at home with the friends I've made and the goals I've accomplished. In the midst of everything I couldn't do, all of that has to mean something, right?

"So where do I start?"

She smiles. "Start here."


End file.
